Catastrophe
The German advance through France, Holland, and Belgium, proved to be unstoppable. The last part of Holland to be overrun surrendered on May 18th, just eight days after the German invasion, Fall Gelb, or Case Yellow, began. The British gave up attempting to save...
The Third Reich Advances
In May, 1940, the Germans advanced rapidly through Holland, Belgium, and France, using a combination of swift Panzer attacks on the ground and deadly Stuka bombing raids from the air. The combined armed forces of Holland, France, and Belgium, supported by the...
The Lion’s Roar
The months of April, May, and June, 1940, were, in Churchill’s words, ‘a cataract of disaster’ for the British and their allies as Hitler crushed all before him. As we blog our way through this grim period let us take a moment to remember the one voice that refused to...
Blitzkrieg—Fall Gelb
On May 10th, 1940, Hitler invaded Western Europe. The German operation was code-named Fall Gelb, or Case Yellow. Luxembourg, Belgium and Holland lasted barely a week before surrendering. The BEF, the British Expeditionary Force sent to defend them, lasted less than a...
The Quiet is Shattered
In the winter months of 1939-40, after the savage destruction of Poland, all was quiet on the western front in Europe. Hitler’s Panza tanks and Stuka dive bombers were silent. Stalin was busy chewing off bits of Finland in the Winter War, but Hitler was biding his...
‘All quiet on the Western Front’
Eighty years ago this month, at the beginning of April 1940, Europe was enmeshed in an uneasy calm. Hitler had launched World War II the previous September, when he fell upon Poland with all the fire and fury of Blitzkrieg—‘lightning war.’ As he tore through that...
